West U Recycling Survey: Expect a Call from UH this Week

West U residents can expect a phone call from the University of Houston this week with questions about recycling in the city.

The city has hired the Hobby Center for Public Policy at the University of Houston to conduct the survey on behalf of the city.

About 400 residents will be randomly surveyed by telephone. The “University of Houston” will show up on caller ID’s and residents are encouraged to participate.

The 24-question survey, which is expected to take about 10 minutes to complete, will ask a series of questions concerning the current trash and recycling program in West U.

The survey will also ask questions about potential changes to the system that would be intended to increase recycling and operational efficiency.

One of the questions states that the city is considering several changes to the current trash and recycling program and asks residents to react to each possible change.

Some of the possible changes include decreasing the frequency of trash pickup from two days a week to one day a week; provide additional 18-gallon blue recycling containers; and change to a cart-based program for both trash and recycling (a cart based program is where the city provides larger carts of varying sized to residents for trash and recycling.)

The survey will be going on for about a week-and-a-half. The results of the survey are expected to be complete by the fall of 2012.

Conducting a resident survey about possible changes to the current solid waste program was one of city council’s goals. The city is spending $10,000 on the survey.